Meikleknox

Two years after the arrival of the pioneers James and William Wadsworth, John Haynes came to Geneseo in 1792 at age five with his parents Jonathan and Isabel Hunter Haynes. They settled on a small plot of land in the eastern part of the township. Jonathan Haynes died in 1795. Because Mrs. Haynes was the first white widow in the town, General (William) Wadsworth gave her a silver dollar and 30 acres of land in the vicinity of Reservoir Road (formerly called Butler Road) and Conesus Lake. That same year she married a neighbor Benjamin Wynn, a drover. Together they accumulated more land until they owned 400 acres reaching to Conesus Lake.

John remained at home working for his step-father on the farm until 1809 when he married Elizabeth Teeple. In 1811, they bought 80 acres of land overlooking Conesus Lake, presumably from the Wynn estate. This is part of the present McClellan property. John built a log cabin and a few years later a red house, with a stone terrace, at which his children were born. They lived here for about 40 years until he built a new house northwest of the old home, the original part of the present McClellan residence. Mrs. Haynes died in 1868; Mr. Haynes continued to live here until 1871 when old age forced him to accept a home with his eldest son Jonathan Hunter Haynes who lived where the LaVigne farm is today. He died in 1873 and the house and farm, then consisting of 130 acres, was inherited by his son. Jonathan Hunter Haynes died in 1888.

James C.G. Haynes, son of Jonathan’s brother James, and his wife, the former Harriet Rorbach, became the owners and took up residence here. They moved to White Plains about 1900, later to Alabama, and returned to Geneseo about 1907 to reside in the large Rorbach house on Second Street in the village. (Mrs. Thomas Adams is their granddaughter.)

In 1902 the Reservoir Road property was sold to William Carson, father of the late Jane and Katherine Carson. In 1917 the Carsons sold it to Mrs. Eugene Long and her son Thomas and two years later it was purchased by Harold and Tirzah Lowe.

When the late Ambassador James J. Wadsworth married Harty Tilton in 1927, his father, the late Senator James W. Wadsworth, purchased this beautiful farm for them. Alden Hatch in his book, The Wadsworths of the Genesee describes the property in this way: “The fine square house with its airy big windowed rooms looked over fertile fields which stretched westward along the ridge toward Geneseo and sloped steeply down to the south and east. Through a gap in the trees you could see Conesus Lake.” The Wadsworths named it “More Lands” and made some alterations. The cupola was removed, the pitch of the roof was raised slightly and the bay in the dining room was extended. The original (rear) south wing was removed and a new wing containing a kitchen, two pantries, maids’ dining room and woodshed with three rooms for servants on the second floor was added. After World War II, the Wadsworths moved to Washington where he served the government.

In 1948, Mr. and Mrs. Robert McClellan purchased the property from the Wadsworths, renaming it “Meikleknox,” after the McClellan ancestral home in Scotland. They maintained it handsomely and with the exception of the addition of acreage, a swimming pool, a tennis court and, as Mr. McClellan put it, “shelves for too many books,” the lovely house and its land remained unchanged.